US Carriers looking like a Dinosour

Sat, 22 Aug 2009

The major U.S. carriers look slightly more dinosaur-like this week. A study by Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett concluded that Verizon Communications (VZ) is now shrinking by about 0.5 percent a year, and AT&T (T) is shrinking 0.4 percent. What’s more, for both carriers, the rate of decline is accelerating.
Moffett’s research essentially means that growth in the carriers’ wireless businesses is not enough to offset the frighteningly rapid contraction on the wireline side. In a gloomy analysis headlined “Cutting the Cord,” The Economist noted that, with customers abandoning landlines at a rate of 700,000 a month, “If the decline of the landline continues at its current rate, the last cord will be cut sometime in 2025.”